Question to the DL: What do I tell my employees about their jobs? I don’t know if they are going to have one in the upcoming weeks.
Disaster Lady Answer: You have to balance your messages. Don’t lie or bullsh*t people. They know when you are doing it and it just makes it worse. However, you also do not need to assume facts, not in evidence, and tell them every possible horrible outcome that scares the hell out of them. By that, I mean it is okay to tell folks that you are working on strategies to make sure that the business continues to be operational and you just do not have all of the answers right now. Commit to giving them updates and then meet those commitments. People do not expect that you will know everything. What they do expect is that you will not hide from this and you will let them know what you can, when you can. I have always seen that if you take care of your employees, then they will take care of your business. Even if they do not, then you can still look yourself in the mirror and not feel like a scumbag for treating people like dirt.